Jack Kerouac, born in Massachusetts in 1922, is a highly influential American writer. His most famous book, On the Road, inspired a generation to travel across America. Kerouac was part of the Beat Generation, a group of writers who pushed literary boundaries. He was influenced by his friend Neil Cassady and developed a new style of writing. On the Road was a huge success and made Kerouac famous. He wrote several more books but none matched the success of On the Road. Kerouac died at the age of 47 due to alcoholism.
Jack Kerouac was born in 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Along with Ernest Hemingway, he is considered one of America’s most influential writers. In 1957 he published his most famous book, On the Road. On the Road inspired a generation to take off and travel across America in search of freedom and adventure.
At 17, Jack Kerouac won a soccer scholarship to Columbia University in New York City. A knee injury ended his chances of becoming a big soccer star and he started taking a more serious interest in writing. While visiting some family haunts, such as Times Square, he befriended Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Gregory Corso. These writers formed the nucleus of what came to be known as the Beat Generation. They were a group of writers who would push literary boundaries and were open to all new experiences.
Neil Cassady was another friend who came on the scene and would be a huge influence on Jack Kerouac. Cassady was a free-spirited drifter, car thief, and ex-con who aspired to be a writer. Together, Cassady and Kerouac took a legendary road trip across America that would be the basis of On the Road.
Jack Kerouac had already written a considerable amount in a fairly conventional style before On the Road. Influenced by Cassady’s stream-of-consciousness letters and the exciting jazz music he heard in New York clubs, Kerouac began to develop a new style of writing. His writing motto was, first thought, better thought, and the book was a rambling first-person account. Primarily autobiographical, the book portrays Jack Kerouac as Sal Paradise and Neil Cassiday as Dean Moriarty.
On the Road, published in 1957, was a huge success and hailed by some as the great American novel. Jack Kerouac became famous overnight. He was seen as the voice of a generation disillusioned with traditional American values. Though painfully shy, he has appeared on talk shows from coast to coast. He also recorded albums of his poems along with the music of jazz musicians of the time.
In the years that followed, Jack Kerouac wrote several more books of prose and poetry, but none approached the success of On the Road. Some of his books include Desolation Angels, Big Sur, The Dharma Bums and Visions of Cody. All were autobiographical and can be read as a chronology of the lives of Kerouac and his friend. On the Road was recently selected as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. The original manuscript sold for 2.4 million US dollars (USD) at auction, and Kerouac’s iconic image was recently used to sell khakis for Gap clothing.
Jack Kerouac died at the age of 47. In his later life, he distanced himself from his Beat contemporaries and began to rely heavily on alcohol. Every year, thousands of people travel to Lowell to visit his grave. They come to pay homage to a man who loved life, freedom and adventure and inspired generations to do the same.
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